1
00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:06,359
it's been a long time since my boss called me into their office and gave me

2
00:00:03,899 --> 00:00:11,820
a string talking to it wasn't easy and I had it coming but the good news is that

3
00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:16,980
most of what the boss that's you is asking for has been underway for months

4
00:00:14,219 --> 00:00:22,260
or in some cases even years that's why we're Under New Management

5
00:00:18,779 --> 00:00:24,480
but as happy as I am that taryn's here

6
00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:29,220
he can't make these kinds of changes alone which is why step one was an all

7
00:00:27,599 --> 00:00:34,500
hands meeting to hear directly from everyone on our team and step two was to

8
00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:40,739
kick off an unprecedented company-wide period of introspection no videos no

9
00:00:37,739 --> 00:00:43,620
tweets no product launches for an entire

10
00:00:40,739 --> 00:00:47,820
week we have done almost nothing but dig through every misstep and conduct

11
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:50,760
face-to-face meetings between our teams with the goal of surfacing the

12
00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:54,660
communication and the teamwork challenges that have brought us to this

13
00:00:52,500 --> 00:00:59,160
point it's been a bit of a roller coaster full of passionate disagreement

14
00:00:56,820 --> 00:01:04,619
and then finding common ground Aaron Grievances and then reconciliation

15
00:01:02,219 --> 00:01:08,520
but through it all we put together a plan it took longer than the week that

16
00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:13,979
we promised you but the way that I see it that's not a bug that's a feature and

17
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,060
it underscores our new commitment to do whatever it takes to move Beyond just

18
00:01:16,500 --> 00:01:23,700
entertainment to become the authoritative voice that you guys deserve and the one that we all want to

19
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:27,180
be before I laid it out though I just want to address two important groups

20
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:32,280
first to everyone who wanted to see us Rise Up

21
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:35,880
from this better than ever I just want to say thank you for being here

22
00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:38,400
um thank you for sharing our passion for technology

23
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,900
um thank you for the countless messages that you guys have sent encouraging us

24
00:01:40,619 --> 00:01:47,460
as we navigate this difficult time and most of all thank you for being

25
00:01:45,659 --> 00:01:52,560
willing to criticize something that you love in order to make it better we're

26
00:01:49,799 --> 00:01:56,310
here for you we are not going anywhere second I want to address everyone who

27
00:01:55,079 --> 00:02:01,259
wanted to see us fail I guess all the same stuff

28
00:01:59,460 --> 00:02:04,439
um we're here for you we're not going anywhere and you're going to have to

29
00:02:03,180 --> 00:02:10,440
deal with that let's kick off with the content reforms then shall we for starters along with

30
00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:13,980
our reduction NVIDIA output to get a handle on all of our new quality focused

31
00:02:12,239 --> 00:02:18,599
process changes we have officially killed the haven't missed an upload in

32
00:02:16,620 --> 00:02:22,440
10 plus years mentality and we've made it explicitly clear that if a video is

33
00:02:20,819 --> 00:02:26,640
not ready for prime time we're going to stop the presses until we've had a

34
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:31,620
chance to make the proper fixes now that might sometimes come in the form of an

35
00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:35,879
on-screen correction but there's going to be better transparency we've created

36
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:40,140
a clear rubric that defines error severity and prescribes the appropriate

37
00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:43,860
fix which can range from a pinned comment to a full reshoot or even the

38
00:02:42,420 --> 00:02:47,819
outright cancellation of the video you're going to find that linked down

39
00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:52,440
below second we've made significant changes to project management and load

40
00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:55,980
balancing with a prioritization on in-person meetings to help Define

41
00:02:53,940 --> 00:03:01,560
project scope and ensure that everyone is aligned our expectation going forward

42
00:02:58,319 --> 00:03:04,080
is that nobody is ever just making

43
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:07,739
graphs about something that hasn't been explained to them or that they don't

44
00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:12,300
fully understand this will not only improve accuracy but it will give us the

45
00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:16,260
opportunity to present data in more interesting and more digestible ways

46
00:03:14,220 --> 00:03:19,800
I've actually got a preview of what this might look like from an upcoming video

47
00:03:17,819 --> 00:03:24,840
that the Labs team is super proud of where they're analyzing the consistency

48
00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:28,980
of performance across a 12 unit sampling of what are supposedly identical AMD

49
00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:33,060
ryzen processors based on these preliminary results looks

50
00:03:31,260 --> 00:03:36,720
like you can buy the exact same computer as your friend and end up with pretty

51
00:03:35,159 --> 00:03:40,560
different performance interesting if true

52
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:45,060
of course I'm not going to ask you to take my word for it we have a lot of

53
00:03:43,500 --> 00:03:50,220
progress to make on our goal of publishing our full testing methodologies but we've opened up the

54
00:03:48,540 --> 00:03:53,819
Forum thread that we promised soliciting feedback and we've outlined the dates

55
00:03:52,260 --> 00:03:57,540
that we're expecting to deliver on some of our methodologies and the open

56
00:03:55,799 --> 00:04:01,680
sourcing of our in-game testing harnesses for those who don't want to click the

57
00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:05,519
link you can expect to find some updates around the middle of September

58
00:04:03,420 --> 00:04:08,640
a good methodology is only a small part of the battle though and if there's one

59
00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:13,019
thing that we learned from all of this it's that we need better processes for

60
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:17,220
accuracy checking the good news is that flowcharts are

61
00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:22,079
good for more than just memes and we have just such a process now every video

62
00:04:20,340 --> 00:04:26,699
with Labs testing will be checked by Labs one to two times before shooting

63
00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:30,300
and then an additional time after the video has been edited any show stopping

64
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:36,360
issues found during these reviews will do exactly that they will stop the show

65
00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:39,780
you guys deserve better than what we've delivered up until this time and that's

66
00:04:38,340 --> 00:04:44,400
what we want to give you after our internal reviews this week we

67
00:04:41,940 --> 00:04:48,419
have unlisted and demonetized multiple videos that contained erroneous data and

68
00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:52,500
we will be updating or otherwise issuing error Corrections on others you'll find

69
00:04:50,580 --> 00:04:57,060
a link to a summary of these changes to previous Labs content down below but our

70
00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:00,600
priority going forward is to publish our error Corrections according to the new

71
00:04:58,919 --> 00:05:05,880
guidelines that I gave you guys a moment ago one problem that we can't solve

72
00:05:03,300 --> 00:05:10,800
internally is that nobody can know everything and even experts can make

73
00:05:08,639 --> 00:05:16,199
mistakes that's why we're kicking off the error checking Community or ECC

74
00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:20,040
Squad it's still in the alpha stage right now with a group of fewer than 10

75
00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:25,560
extremely knowledgeable community members and we may or we may not ever

76
00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:28,620
expand beyond that but we are going to have a link down below if you're

77
00:05:26,820 --> 00:05:32,280
interested in hearing more about this program in the event that we roll it out

78
00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:36,600
more broadly in the short term as we roll out all our new processes and

79
00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:42,060
inevitably find some wrinkles these folks might find stuff that does get

80
00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:46,560
missed but in the longer term our goal is to have our internal systems be so

81
00:05:43,979 --> 00:05:51,139
solid that the ECC Squad pretty much turns into a free Early Access group for

82
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:56,520
subject matter experts in our community with the odd

83
00:05:54,120 --> 00:06:00,660
um actually to help us do better now something I want to be clear about

84
00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:05,639
is that you are still going to see some ad hoc less formal testing I mean we've

85
00:06:03,479 --> 00:06:08,880
got a video coming up where I'm fixing my computer and I've run over to Lucas

86
00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:12,060
in the lab to help diagnose a dead power supply we're going to conduct quick and

87
00:06:10,620 --> 00:06:16,560
dirty tests where we just take two laptops and Press buttons and how long it takes to

88
00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:20,220
open an application sometimes the full treatment isn't

89
00:06:19,139 --> 00:06:24,120
necessary but we're going to make sure that we are

90
00:06:22,319 --> 00:06:29,400
clearly communicating that to you finally recognizing that Improvement is

91
00:06:26,819 --> 00:06:33,600
a journey not a destination we're using our Newfound time to run weekly writing

92
00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:38,039
team postmortems to identify the areas where we're killing it

93
00:06:34,979 --> 00:06:39,840
and the ones where we're really not our

94
00:06:38,039 --> 00:06:43,380
findings will be used to both improve accuracy and also the quality of our

95
00:06:41,639 --> 00:06:48,780
content moving on to the business side of things there's not much changing here

96
00:06:45,900 --> 00:06:53,580
except more transparency and that's actually a common theme throughout all

97
00:06:50,340 --> 00:06:56,400
of this we've recognized many of our

98
00:06:53,580 --> 00:07:01,319
biggest areas for improvement for years I mean that's why we have the

99
00:06:59,759 --> 00:07:06,360
sponsor complaint thread on the forum for example which we've now committed to

100
00:07:03,419 --> 00:07:10,620
providing weekly updates on and that's why we had our internal sponsorship

101
00:07:08,220 --> 00:07:14,639
guidelines which now you will find linked down below available in public

102
00:07:12,660 --> 00:07:18,960
that's also why we brought in an experienced manager Taryn who is

103
00:07:17,460 --> 00:07:24,780
off-site this week or I would have brought him in to chat with you guys as well there are some other changes we've

104
00:07:22,919 --> 00:07:28,680
committed to and followed through on providing more proactive information to

105
00:07:26,580 --> 00:07:32,160
our team during crisis time we've built out a clear schedule for one-on-ones

106
00:07:30,180 --> 00:07:35,940
between team members and managers and we've established a path to reducing the

107
00:07:34,020 --> 00:07:39,780
number of direct reports for each manager and a bunch of other stuff that

108
00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:43,500
we're going to continue to work on in the background I do think one of the most pressing

109
00:07:42,300 --> 00:07:48,060
things that you guys want to hear about though is that we have revised our

110
00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:51,720
process for item tracking to a heartbeat system that requires our procurement

111
00:07:49,919 --> 00:07:56,699
team to follow up pending projects and update their status

112
00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:58,860
they didn't do anything wrong before but

113
00:07:56,699 --> 00:08:03,660
this should help to avoid any confusion going forward around items that start

114
00:08:01,199 --> 00:08:08,400
out as we don't need it back and then turn into a loan later on I do not want

115
00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:13,560
to see something accidentally end up in the Christmas party pile or any other

116
00:08:10,380 --> 00:08:15,539
don't need it anymore pile again now

117
00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:19,740
let's talk about our workplace culture we offer a solid benefits package

118
00:08:17,460 --> 00:08:22,979
including extended Health mental health and dental coverage as well as

119
00:08:21,300 --> 00:08:26,819
Retirement savings contributions and matching we proactively host regular

120
00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:31,259
team building events including summer of fun which gives every full-time local

121
00:08:28,860 --> 00:08:34,800
employee up to 300 to spend on any activities they want with other members

122
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:38,039
of our team bi-weekly gaming nights in the lounge with free food weekly

123
00:08:36,300 --> 00:08:41,940
badminton nights bi-weekly softball nights and a quarterly budget for

124
00:08:39,719 --> 00:08:44,880
department-wide team building events we organize occasional surprise field trips

125
00:08:43,740 --> 00:08:49,980
where people are paid to have fun together and our Christmas parties are

126
00:08:47,180 --> 00:08:55,260
legendary with surprise bonuses that over the years have included free

127
00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:56,760
laptops wild raffle prize halls and ten

128
00:08:55,260 --> 00:09:02,519
thousand dollars in bonus money per person not once but twice on that last

129
00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:07,200
one and while we don't make a point of talking about that stuff much and while

130
00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:11,640
Our intention was never to publish our findings earlier this year we also asked

131
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:16,140
our HR team to conduct one-on-one meetings company-wide to identify key

132
00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:19,140
issues and do a temperature check to see how everyone was feeling our

133
00:09:17,700 --> 00:09:22,920
communication internally about the actions we've taken based on the surveys

134
00:09:21,060 --> 00:09:27,720
hasn't been perfect we've gotten some feedback that the Monday morning meeting

135
00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:29,820
notes are dense and hard to parse but in

136
00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,940
June we laid out a road map for many of the improvements that we had already

137
00:09:30,899 --> 00:09:36,779
made or planned to make based on the one-on-ones

138
00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:42,240
now for those of you paying very close attention you probably heard me mention

139
00:09:38,339 --> 00:09:43,740
our HR team which isn't consistent with

140
00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:47,880
the impression that many people seem to have of our structure here a portion of

141
00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:55,740
our community seems to think that the only option to report grievances here is

142
00:09:50,279 --> 00:09:57,300
to your boss or to your other boss and I

143
00:09:55,740 --> 00:10:03,480
just don't really know what to say other than that is simply not the case

144
00:10:01,019 --> 00:10:07,560
there was a time when we were very small and yes I did handle all the HR

145
00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:13,620
complaints that was years ago and the same is true

146
00:10:10,140 --> 00:10:16,140
for Yvonne in 2018 we passed 25

147
00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:19,140
employees and we engaged an outside HR Council to advise us on what we were

148
00:10:17,820 --> 00:10:24,180
doing right and what could be done better in 2020 we grew to 40 team

149
00:10:21,959 --> 00:10:27,540
members and we brought in an outside HR firm making them available to all

150
00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:32,399
employees if they needed to talk to them this was on top of the usual recommended

151
00:10:30,180 --> 00:10:36,060
conflict resolution steps of discussing your issue with the other person talking

152
00:10:33,959 --> 00:10:40,620
to your manager talking to their manager talking to ownership or filling out an

153
00:10:38,279 --> 00:10:44,880
anonymous feedback form then as we approached 100 team members we added a

154
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:47,940
dedicated in-house HR department with the goal of providing even more

155
00:10:46,260 --> 00:10:52,680
resources to our team to be clear Yvonne and I do both still

156
00:10:50,579 --> 00:10:57,300
have an open door policy so team members do still have the option of talking to

157
00:10:54,300 --> 00:10:59,760
us directly if that's their preference

158
00:10:57,300 --> 00:11:02,820
and I don't know how to emphasize this enough

159
00:11:00,839 --> 00:11:08,339
everything that I just talked about existed before last week this is not

160
00:11:05,579 --> 00:11:13,920
some kind of knee-jerk reactionary Corporal nonsense the one exception the

161
00:11:11,940 --> 00:11:18,120
one new thing is the emergency upgrade that we made to our health plan in

162
00:11:15,899 --> 00:11:22,980
recent weeks a shocking number of our team members have been harassed bullied

163
00:11:20,279 --> 00:11:26,640
and even threatened on social media so effective September 2023 we have doubled

164
00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:31,320
our coverage for mental health counseling and

165
00:11:29,459 --> 00:11:36,300
all I have to say other than that is that if you're one of the people who engaged in this Behavior I refuse to

166
00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:42,120
refer to you as members of our community you know who you are and shame on you

167
00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:44,880
not one of our team members deserved that

168
00:11:42,839 --> 00:11:48,720
we have a zero tolerance policy for any of that crap and we always have

169
00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:52,140
regarding our workload we work hard here

170
00:11:50,279 --> 00:11:58,140
I've never denied that but we also aren't running some kind of

171
00:11:54,860 --> 00:11:59,339
deranged Twitter 2.0 Ultra Hardcore

172
00:11:58,140 --> 00:12:03,600
operation this is the morning and night

173
00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:07,980
surveillance footage of our parking lot at the studio for five work days leading

174
00:12:05,700 --> 00:12:11,880
up to our week of introspection we offer some flexibility around start and end

175
00:12:09,839 --> 00:12:16,800
times so you'll see that some people roll in starting around 8 30 and then as

176
00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:22,560
you can see the ones who arrive later are typically gone by around 6 30.

177
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:27,660
there are exceptions that Friday you'll see we were filming up until the WAN

178
00:12:24,540 --> 00:12:29,220
show thanks guys also our cleaning

179
00:12:27,660 --> 00:12:33,720
contractors come in after hours so that's um that's their van so that they

180
00:12:31,620 --> 00:12:36,959
don't disrupt production and sometimes folks will stick around if they need a

181
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:40,320
big space for tabletop gaming but to characterize our environment as

182
00:12:39,180 --> 00:12:48,360
some kind of 24 7 Sweatshop is frankly ridiculous

183
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:50,279
we also do work overtime sometimes

184
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:54,959
we're in a competitive industry it happens and I've never denied that

185
00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:56,820
either but we care about our team and I

186
00:12:54,959 --> 00:13:00,779
think this is reflected both in our commitment to cut content moving forward

187
00:12:58,380 --> 00:13:06,480
until we get our house in order and in our historical turnover rate

188
00:13:02,519 --> 00:13:09,420
from 2013 to 2023 inclusive our average

189
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:13,680
turnover rate was 7.5 percent with a median value of 7.7 those numbers

190
00:13:11,700 --> 00:13:18,600
include both people who resigned their positions and people who were dismissed

191
00:13:16,620 --> 00:13:23,519
for context according to Workforce research for Mercer the Canadian average

192
00:13:20,579 --> 00:13:28,680
is 18 while in the U.S it's around 20 percent we have had two years over that

193
00:13:26,339 --> 00:13:32,639
span that were less than exemplary but even then we were lower than average

194
00:13:30,500 --> 00:13:38,820
removing the people who were dismissed from their positions we fall to 3.65

195
00:13:35,100 --> 00:13:41,459
average 1.9 percent median being a media

196
00:13:38,820 --> 00:13:46,079
company our departures are a little louder than most but in the grand scheme

197
00:13:43,860 --> 00:13:50,820
of things I hope you guys can see that the numbers show there really aren't

198
00:13:49,260 --> 00:13:56,519
that many of them but with that said we have heard you as

199
00:13:54,540 --> 00:14:02,100
part of our unwavering commitment to improve our turnover may rise as we take

200
00:13:59,579 --> 00:14:07,200
decisive steps to do better for you to be clear this is not supposed to be

201
00:14:05,100 --> 00:14:10,620
stressful for the hard-working members of our team

202
00:14:08,279 --> 00:14:15,000
we have no plans for layoffs we're even still hiring our rainy day fund is going

203
00:14:13,260 --> 00:14:20,040
to comfortably carry us through this storm the vast majority of this team is world

204
00:14:17,940 --> 00:14:23,459
class they care so much about our community and igniting passion for

205
00:14:21,540 --> 00:14:25,820
technology and they are going to be here for you